Process Engineer

[sky123]

I had been working for 2 years in a chemical manufacturing MNC in jurong island as a process engineer.
Have a first class chemical engineering degree from a UK university.
Starting pay was $2800. after two years is $3050. Bonus 1 month varible + 1 month AWS.

Am I underpaid? If yes, what should be the reasonable salary?
Thanks.

Originally Posted by sky123

I had been working for 2 years in a chemical manufacturing MNC in jurong island as a process engineer.
Have a first class chemical engineering degree from a UK university.
Starting pay was $2800. after two years is $3050. Bonus 1 month varible + 1 month AWS.

Am I underpaid? If yes, what should be the reasonable salary?
Thanks.

you should had join exxon mobil with starting salary $3650, and after 2 years your salary will be 4.8-5k already,
annual salary is 12 mth basic + fix 3 mth AWS + variable bonus(2-3 mth depend on company and your performance)

if his degree was from a top uk university, i think he would have done so already

[sky123]

FYI, my university is ranked higher than NUS.

Definitely underpaid if degree university is higher rank than NUS. 2 years exp is 4.5k+ with 3-4 mth bonus in most companies

[icy water]

i don't think it is that easy to get into exxon or shell, the 2 major players as well as higher paying ones. That is like saying why work in a local bank when you can work in a foreign one.

Also, note that oil & gas and chemical are two different industries. Might have been better to compare with pharmaceutical companies instead.

Originally Posted by icy water

i don't think it is that easy to get into exxon or shell, the 2 major players as well as higher paying ones. That is like saying why work in a local bank when you can work in a foreign one.

Also, note that oil & gas and chemical are two different industries. Might have been better to compare with pharmaceutical companies instead.

So if comparing chemical and pharmaceutical industries, what is the market range for a engineer with two years of experience?

3200-3600 should be the range now.

Originally Posted by sky123

I had been working for 2 years in a chemical manufacturing MNC in jurong island as a process engineer.
Have a first class chemical engineering degree from a UK university.
Starting pay was $2800. after two years is $3050. Bonus 1 month varible + 1 month AWS.

Am I underpaid? If yes, what should be the reasonable salary?
Thanks.

Hi,

I think you are probably underpaid. But it really depends on whether you are upstream, downstream or utilities provider, where the profit margin of the company can defer greatly, thus affecting the salary of the employee. But these 2 years are not a good gauge of the potential of the company, everyone is suffering.

Also, it depends on your job scope and importance of your job to the company. Are you one of the many chemical engineers in your company waiting for technical manager to arrow you some job?
But since you have only 2 years experience, I would advice you to brush up your technical and operations skills.
For your info, I am also working in Jurong Island and my background is local NUS chemical engineering. Even after ~6 years, I still take time to read up books/internet and companies' SOP. The more you know, the more you can contribute, the more the company will value you.

I know the difficulties chemical engineers face when they come into the industry and finding it difficult to use what they learnt in school, as there is a mismatch of what we learn and what we need. They also have difficulty explaining engineering concepts to operational staff whom do not have any engineering background, only experience.

But remember even if you are the best in the worst performing industry, you will still only be mediocre.

You can try Shell/Exxon as they are the top payers in the industry. But I heard the politics there are...er hmmm....anyone to confirm this?

[sky123]

Hi, My job scope is working on projects. Had completed a few projects and currently working on a few projects with a combine worth of a few millions. My job scope is from designing to construction and commissioning, mainly one man show beside getting some help from eletrical and mechanical engineer.

If we are looking at importance of my job to the company, I would say its quite importance as I am the only engineer in charge of the project.